Laurelea has 'Cool Runnings' moment before world record win

Clair Morton
Journalist
Although I’ve moved around a bit, I’m a Queensland girl at heart with a love of the ocean and the mighty maroons. Since moving to Grafton earlier this year I have fallen in love with the Valley lifestyle. The best part of my job here is getting to know the locals and putting their stories on paper; there is always something going on and so many people with interesting tales to tell.

CYCLING: When Grafton cyclist Laurelea Moss lined up to compete in the 2000m individual pursuit at the World Track Masters Championships, she fell off her bike.

After she recovered from the spill, she went on to set a new world record. It was one of two records she set during the championships in England earlier this month - the other on her way to winning gold in the flying 200m sprint.

Moss finished the event with four individual gold medals and a team bronze.

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Her achievements are even more incredible considering she was only introduced to track cycling last year and trains by pedalling her track bike down a bumpy dirt road in South Grafton.

"If the girls knew what I was training on, well it's basically like the movie Cool Runnings," she said.

"It's been an amazing trajectory from borrowing a track bike to the world stage."

Prior to competing in track racing, Moss was a star road cyclist, who has travelled around Australia with the Holden women's road cycling team, so the art of competitive racing wasn't entirely new.

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But the velodrome is a different beast altogether.

"In the 2000m individual pursuit it was a gate start, where they count down and it releases you," she said.

"I have had so few gate starts that I got up in the qualifier and literally fell off my bike.

"We had to restart because there was an incident, and then I got back on the bike and did a world-best time.

"People just didn't know quite what to think."

Moss said she was "absolutely stoked" with her results, which was all she hoped for and more.

"I actually went over there very greedily wanting four gold medals, which is basically unheard of," she said.

"The bronze is just a bonus. There were a couple of girls who needed an extra team member and I was it."

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The 37-year-old returned to Grafton on Sunday after taking some extra time to see England's sights.

Moss's run of achievements continued yesterday when she was named as a finalist in the Women's Masters Track Cyclist of the Year award, which will be presented at the Cycling Australia Awards on November 18.

Her world-best times should be ratified in coming weeks.

Asked what was next, Moss said it was a little early for her to have formulated her next goal but knows there's still room to improve.

"There's a few people around me saying if you are doing this now, with these training conditions, you could be aiming for open worlds or the next Olympics," she said.

"I might not get that far but do I see myself going to the world masters next year? Yes for sure, I absolutely love it."